Italian engineer Camillo Olivetti ran a factory making measuring devices for more than a decade, and became interested in typewriters after a trip to America. He established Olivetti SpA on 29 October 1908 to manufacture typewriters, though its first model was not available for sale until 1911. The company became famous for its stylish, reliable typewriters, exported to twenty-two nations by the time of his death, and the Olivetti brand became a European leader in office machines and computers. Politically an outspoken socialist and Jewish by heredity, he converted to the Unitarian faith late in life.